An encouraging celebration of persistence and self-expression.
How sculptor Elizabeth Berrien became “Godmother of Wire.”
Elizabeth loved animals but could never draw them as she saw them: composed of graceful lines. With her right hand, she could draw only scribbles. When she knitted using both hands, however, “her brain began rewiring her eyes and hands to work together.” But Elizabeth, who’d been taught to use her right hand despite being left-handed, couldn’t master drawing, and her high school art teacher’s dismissal of her “sloppy work” nearly convinced her to give up art altogether. Fortunately, another teacher, Mr. Curran, encouraged creative problem-solving, renewing her enthusiasm. When he gave her a roll of wire, Elizabeth’s hands could finally express “the beauty she’d seen all her life.” With practice, she figured out how to shape wire into animals, which earned her acclaim as a “true wire sculptor” and led to her biggest challenge: creating a life-size winged horse exhibit. Working through pain and fear of failure, Elizabeth triumphed. Invited to be an animal park’s resident artist, Elizabeth realized that, with her sculptures, she was at last sharing the animals’ “energy lines, their life forces,” with the world. Though somewhat static, Stone’s soft-edged illustrations clearly convey Elizabeth’s emotions, and the artist’s struggles to conform to right-handed drawing will resonate with readers who move, think, and learn in ways that differ from expectations. Backmatter includes further biographical details and color photos of Berrien’s work. Elizabeth presents white; background characters are racially diverse.
An encouraging celebration of persistence and self-expression. (Picture-book biography. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781665940764
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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